Way back when......a lil History

The history of Chelsea Football Club has been a chain of ups and downs, that not only includes a constant stream of failures, but also a couple of moments of success. Chelsea's history goes hand in hand with the history of Stamford Bridge, the home den of the Blue Lions. In 1865 the South West corner of London consisted of meadows and a cricket ground behind the Brompton graveyard. Four decades later, when the suburbs had reached the area, the London Athletic Club was formed and it's home ground even played host to international games.
It is highly propable, that Chelsea Football Club would not exist without the influence of building contactor and businessman Henry Augustus "Gus" Mears. Together with his brother J T he bought the Stamford Bridge Athletic Ground in 1894, and later the neighbouring large market garden, with the aim of building the finest football stadium in the country.
The terraces were built on top of material excavated from the building of Piccadilly underground railway station. When the work was completed Mears presumed that Fulham FC, who then played in the Southern League, would move to the Bridge, the annual rent being £1500. Fulham refused, and in despair Mears nearly sold the ground to the Great Western Railway Company to serve as a storage ground, but later decided to fill the stadium with a brand new club.
The deciding meeting was held in the beginning of 1905. The initiative came from F.W. Parker, a noted businessman, the founder of the London Athletic Club and a near friend of the Mears brothers. It was also Parker who insisted that the club should be called Chelsea. When it became obvious that Southern League would not accept them, Parker took care that the Football Association would vote them into the second division.
To meet the challenge, the team playing in blue shirts and white shorts (the away kit was a Newcastle Utd type striped kit) had already hired a promising team. Chelsea's first player manager, central defender John "Jock" Tait Robertson (28 yrs) came from Glasgow Rangers and the first goal keeper was the England international and FA Cup winner, a real barn door of a man, the 31- year-old Willie Foulke (6ft 6in and 22st).
Chelsea's first game away in Stockport on the first of September in -05 ended 0-1 in spite of a penalty saved by Foulke. A week later in Blackpool manager Robertson made history by scoring Chelsea's first goal in a game that ended 0-1.
The first home game at Stamford Bridge was played on Monday September 11th, and again Foulke had to collect the ball from the net in a game against Hull City, but to the delight of the crowd of 6000 the game ended 5-1. 20.000 came to the next game and 67,000 saw the Man United game on Long Friday.
The teams playing in the 2nd division did not have to play qualification games to take part in the FA Cup, but Chelsea had been accepted in to the league too late, so they had to do so. The first two games did not coincide with league games but the 3rd round match against Crystal Palace did.
The FA ordered Chelsea to play the league game against Burnley with the first team. This resulted in the Blues losing 7-1 away at Palace with a team that included two players whose contracts were causing a lot of suspicion. This was why the FA ruled that teams had to play the games using the first team players.
By the end of their first season the newcomers were third in the league table. The next summer, 21-year-old George Hilsdon was brought in from the Hammers, and in his first game against Glossop he shot five goals, and in the cup game against Worksop he scored the team's record, six goals in one game. His total of the season was 27.
The figure of Hilsdon can still be seen in the weathervane of the Bridge (was shown during the -95 Cup Winners' Cup home game against FC Bruges on Eurosport), that shows this goal scorer who earned the nickname "The Gatling Gunner". The staff at the Bridge told that under the rebuilding of the stadiun Hilsdon's figure was lowered from the roof and forgotten lying somewhere, but when it was refound and put back on the roof Chelsea's luck changed and even the results became better.
More important was, however, that with him as a leading figure in the team Chelsea were already promoted from the second spot, after Nottingham Forest, to the first division after their second season in 1907. The league table showed 11 wins and 3 defeats in 22 games with Hilsdon scoring 30 times in 35 games.
One of the most famous players of that era was George Roby, who started the long relationship between show business and Chelsea. It all started from the death of the club's first coach, Jimmy Miller at Christmas. To help his wife the famous comedian Roby put together a team to play a charity game against Chelsea the next April.
After scoring once he immediately agreed on an amateur contract with Chelsea, which brought other stars of show business to the terraces. They often used Chelsea's reputation as an unpredictable team as a source of inspiration in their shows, and Chelsea was often a laughing stock.
During the -09/10 season, Chelsea fought against relegation and had to use the incredible sum of £3.300 to panic deals. The registration problems connected to the transfers led to a situation in which the football association decided to take the far reaching action and set a time limit to the player transfers. The transfers had to be clear by the fourth Thursday of March at 3pm and after that the FA could influence the deals by, for example, giving the players the right to only play the league games.
The results in those years were of varying degree. We were promoted twice, relegated once and in between there were many tight situations in the fight for relegation or promotion.


In 1911 Chelsea reached the FA Cup semi final, but lost it to Newcastle. The season -14/15 was a disaster, but that was nothing compared to the problems caused by the start of the first World War. Vivian Woodward and B G Whittingham joined the Footballers' Batallion (the 17. Middlesex regiment), and the team had to play with what was left. Chelsea even had to bring in players from Scotland. For example Bob Thompson, who came from Croydon Common had only one eye. When he was asked how he could hit the goal he replied: "I just close my eyes and play from memory."
People protested strongly against playing the league during the war, and for the next four seasons it was played as a local league in London under the name of "The London Combination". Chelsea won it in -15 and -19 bringing the London Victory Cup to the Bridge. The war was also present in the match programs that included, among other things, letters from soldiers.
In -15 Chelsea reached the final of the FA Cup, but lost it 3-0 to Sheffield United. This was probably because amateur centre forward Vivian Woodward, back from the front line, gave his place to out of form Bob Thomson. In the cup finals of those years extra time was played already after the first game if needed.
The post war season (-19) started in a strange manner. Chelsea had been relegated to division two, but the fact that Manchester United and Liverpool were accused of having fixed their game and the increase of the amount of teams in division one by two, helped Chelsea back to division one. The season proved to be one of the best in Chelsea's history. They were third in the league and reached the semi final in the FA Cup. Had CFC won the semi, they would have played in the final, that was to be played at the Bridge.
Another problem the team had to deal with was scoring goals. Chelsea never fought for the championship but was, however, all the time among the top six. The third spot they finished in was Chelsea's best achievement so far. Season -21/22 saw 7 wins in a row, a record again, and only two defeats in 17 games.
The most important player of the team was the brilliant dribbler and wrong footer Andy Wilson, who came to Chelsea before the start of the -23/24 season and was Chelsea's captain for six seasons. He was, however, a better play maker than shooter so his role was changed from centre forward to inside forward. Another man of importance was the brilliant goal keeper Simeon "Sam" Millington, who came in before the start of the -26/27 season. Unfortunately Chelsea spent that time in division two, but in spite of this the home crowd average was as high as 31.000, which describes the loyalty of the fans.
In desperation Chelsea brought in new faces but that did not help and the final placing in the end of the -28/29 season was 9th in division II, which was to be the lowest in the first 70 years of club history. It was during this period of time Chelsea started the tradition of going to Argentina on holiday. The players told that they had learned team play there and that the two weeks' trip by boat had given a boost to their team spirit. In any case the next spring they secured their promotion in the last game of the season. This season goes to history for another reason; Chelsea and Arsenal were the first teams to use numbered shirts in the English football.
Having come back to the top division Chelsea spent money like fools to get the best players no matter what it cost. But the large squad did not guarantee good results. Even though Chelsea played beautiful football the results were poor and they lived in constant fear of relegation. Another negative point was that the team included too many big stars with big heads.
The Scotland international Hughie Gallagher, brought in from Newcastle, was Chelsea's first striker to cost over 10.000 pounds. This short (165 cm) player who had a blazing temper and could even, in the heat of the game, ask the ref to let him go and calm down by the touch line started the "Pint Size"-section of the club. Winger Alec Cheyne, costing £6000, came from Aberdeen to play as inside forward. He was accompanied by winger Alec Jackson, "The Gay Cavalier" from Huddersfield, who cost £8500. This was how the best 5 British strikers of Chelsea were formed. All the lads were internationals and Jacky Crawford was the only Englishman alongside the four scots.
The rest of the squad were brilliant, too. The team included the hard tackling left full back, " The Wembley Wizard", Tommy Law from Scotland, and in some games a total of nine internationals or an all international midfield: Ireland's Sam Irving, England's Jack Townrow and Syd Bishop entered the pitch.
The diminutive but fiery Gallagher scored 30 goals in 40 games during the -32 season, which brought in new spectators. The first five home games were all witnessed by a crowd of over 50.000 people and 75.000 saw Arsenal in November. The new great goalie, Vic Woodley was a vital part of the success and brought credibility to the defensive back line.
In between the wars Chelsea's success was mediocre. The best final placing was 8th and it was often the goalies who kept the team together. Vick Woodley played 19 times for England, but the number two goalie for CFC was Scotland's number one, Johnny Jackson.
The official record crowd of Chelsea, 83.000 was reached in October -35 against Arsenal. Another record was the 100th goal of George Mills in a Chelsea shirt. The -35/36 season ended sadly when J.T Mears, chairman Claude Kirby and Bent Palmer, a long time assistant secretary, died within a short period of time.
The autumn of -39 saw the start of WW II, but already, seven weeks after the regional leagues were played, the clubs were allowed to use visiting players for entertainment purposes and the atmosphere was therefore different. In April -44 CFC made it's way to the Football League South Cup final and to Wembley for the first time in the club's history. The game against Charlton was lost, but the game against our "dear" enemy Millwall was won 2-0 in the same cup a year later. The result however, was not too important since Chelsea had recruited players from other teams.
Billy Byrrell became the new manager in May -39. His first game of real significance was the legendary "Dynamo Day" in front of nearly 100.000 spectators in November -45. It was a friendly against Dynamo Moscow, who were on a four game tour in Britain. This was the first game with enormous public interest so every possible seat, including the roofs, were in use. The exact number of spectators remains a mystery because of the chaotic circumstances at the Bridge, but the number of tickets sold was 74.496.
The Russians first surprised Chelsea by presenting every home team player with a bunch of flowers. The ref later surprised the Blues by donating Dynamo a goal "for diplomatic reasons". Chelsea were already had a 2-0 lead with goals by Goulden ja Reg Williams, but the visitors equalized the game to 2-2. Tommy Lawton who scored 30 times in 39 games and cost £11.500 when he came from Everton is still bitter about the result of this game that was played only three days after his debut game. He put Chelsea in the lead, 3-2 but the referee gave Dynamo an equalizing goal that was shot from at least 3 yards offside and Chelsea players were left without the bonus money they thought they deserved.
The FA Cup made an exception that year and the ties were decided on two legs.

 

Damn, forgot about this one.

Think i might put a sticky on it

 

I believe that was one of my first rambles on here Andy - over two and a half years ago.

Kudos to Monkee for going back and digging it up.

Oh, wait, we're all plastics

 

So, in short, if you don't like us, you can go **** off?